Category Archive

So I’m at a coffee shop right now. An attempt to break up my day a little and a need for coffee, obviously. Yesterday we ran out OH NO. Haha. Anyone who knows me well knows that coffee has become sort of my blood. I am probably a coffee vampire…i don’t like that scratch it. They’re playing something that sounds a little bit like the Beatles here. You know the kind of music that plays at coffee shops that you’re never really sure what it is but you just want it to keep playing so you can drink your coffee and write your blog. It’s that kind of music. So yesterday I sent a proposal in to CORD again. This specific conference is on “Embodying Power: Distance Over Time”. My issue with this conference is that it’s a joint conference between CORD and a theatre studies thing. I mean, it’s not that I don’t like theatre studies, but it’s not what I do…and I don’t know about it. We’ll see I think my abstract was strong and pretty doable. Here’s to another year of impossible goals and expectations.

I had this idea for a blog while I was sipping my strong Voltaire coffee from Alterra with the music playing the almost Beatles music that I could do something like ‘A gay and his dog’ or something like that. On Friday we’re getting puppies and GOD KNOWS I will be stressed about that but in a good way. I just think it would be cute to document me and the puppies and Ra’ and the puppies. It wouldn’t always be about the dogs, obviously, more about me. Like this one except with more or less focus on a given day. I’ll probably just keep doing this one and make some about the dogs. That’s a more feasible, doable thing.

Speaking of the pups we’re gonna go to Petco today, you know where the pets go? We have to prepare the place for them. Puppy pads, dog food, KONG toys, blankets, a doggy bed. I am so ready to love dogs again. It’s been hard since Penny died a few years ago for me to open up to an animal like that, but it’s time. Penny would’ve wanted me to do so (Penny was my dog from 1st grade who had to be put down 3 years ago when she got lots of cancer in her body and couldn’t see or really walk anymore. She was the best dog a boy could ever have.) I will make them my family and miss them whenever I go anywhere. Why is it so much easier to write 500 words in a blog than 250 in an abstract? I suppose an abstract has goals…this blog clearly doesn’t.

Well with that I am probably going to stop this post. I look forward to Friday when the babies come home and meet their daddies and fall in love forever and steal our hearts. Ra’ has already said that I’ll have to be the disciplinarian, so I’m reading up on lots of training tips and watching “It’s you or the dog” like constantly. Remember when I said I was gonna end this post? Well it’s not often that I feel the need to keep writing so I figure I might as well keep going. (Most people would delete these sentences) OK now i’m really done. BAI.

OK so here’s my BOSFRONZ blog post. Prepare to cry…that’s more of a warning to myself because really no one else cries at these things besides Jeff and John. In a nutshell 2009 was the year of the eyebrows. I don’t know exactly what that means and I don’t have the desire to try to prove it, although I’m sure I could. All I know is that I had eyebrows all of 2009, and so did my friends.

For me, personally, 2009 was meteoric considering accomplishments. I am so incredibly lucky to have had such amazing opportunities. Things I was able to do: went to China, lived in NYC for a month and a half, performed at the Northrop, showed choreography at ACDFA and was extremely well received, and countless other things that I’m sort of blanking on right now.

So I thought I’d go through these photos and sort of non-chronologically explain the year. I’ll go top to bottom left to right.

1. China was INCREDIBLE. This pic was taken with all the company, guests, and spouses who were along for the ride. What an AMAZING adventure. We literally flew over the world to get there and back. Without a doubt the memories from this trip will never leave me.

2. OF COURSE if you’ve ever seen my besti, Jeff, and my wall to wall on facebook, you might notice the trend of starting every statement, question, remark, and basically anything with “remember whens”. I mean, it’s impossible to remember something that hasn’t happened yet, but it’s not about “making sense”.

3. This was Ra’mon and I’s first night in New York! We were in Times Square looking for someplace to eat and he stopped me and said, ok before we do anything else we need to take a picture here. 🙂 So cute and happy. We look like we belong there, no?

4. This was my FIRST Limon company experience back in March. The dancers were staying at the Westin and us U of Mers went to hang out and take them out for a night on the town the Minnesota (which equals freezing, naturally) way.

5. So this is really cut off but it’s John Sand and I posing at the Citypages photobooth on the 4th of July at Too Much Love. Clearly we were dressing down that night and thinking rather conservatively. Also, we were by no means drunk.

6. Another John Sand and Brent Radeke classic. The U Otter was the perfect night before I headed to NYC. We sang karaoke and drank whisky cokes and generally had a brilliant time, like always. What I remember most from that night is my clever tactics in avoiding a trip to White Caste and instead directing hunger toward the wonderful and always open McDonalds.

7. FORD HALL. Besti Jeff and I posed in front of the infamous and fordable Ford Hall on the Fierce Purple Cardigan holiday known as Gay Easter. Of course no GE could be complete without a trip to Noodles. We walked all over campus but eventually we ate and finished off the night watching Jesus Christ Super Star for Pjsesus.

8. (2nd row furtherst right) 2009 UDT and I believe it was opening night. Duncan, Kat, and I were sporting our fierce costumes for Shapiro and Smith’s “A Moment Before”. Starr’s in the background making fun of our wedgies, I’m sure. An amazing cast, an amazing dance, and an amazing UDT. I miss dancing with everyone back home more than a little bit.

9. My favorite part of the summer is my “vacation” up north to Nisswa. Riding on the jetski with my cousins and getting tan in my tiny swimsuit was the goal and i SUCCEEDED. I also succeeded at getting drunk by noon and taking shots with my mother.

10. Biggie Slims and I rockin out the NYE 2009 at the Crystal Ball. OH WHAT A NIGHT. Let’s just say that BEP song was pretty true 4sr.

11. Me and my hero, Ananya on my last day at work at ADT. Miss her and that work and those amazing women and doing some social justice but trying to forge my own path now.

12. Jesi and I were 2cool4school eating lunch on the steps of the Met. Gossip Girl XOXO. That’s right, I’m the queen bee.

13. (bottom left) Harry Potter 6 was probably one of THE highlights of the summer for me. Dressed up and going to the midnight showing. I swear I went with the most creative group of costumes. I was the least creative, but I at least wasn’t like Ron or Harry or something. IT WAS SO GOOD.

14. Honestly, 2009 (and part of 2008) were the years of Missa Brevis. I have been doing Limon work now for over a year. CRAZY. It brought me to China, though so I can’t really complain…at all. The part in the pic is from the sextet.

15. STATE FAIR DUH. Me and the ladies went to the state fair and stuffed ourselves with entirely too much food and I ruined a pair of shorts dancing and we got SOAKED on a water ride. One of THE BEST days of the year. I am definitely coming back next year for some more food and laughs.

16. (Last but definitely not least) Transmission. Kara, John and I (the sprfshn trio) invaded Jager for 80s night. Of course we were the most fabulous people there, but we didn’t win the Madonna discography for best costume. Not cool. Of course we went to McDonalds after and of course we had a fabulous time. There’s always drama, of course, with some ex or another showing up but what’s fun without a little FLARE? (If I don’t stop writing soon I’m going to throw up) I was clearly an 80s dancer and John was some country star or something.

So I am starting to think about spring and summer, naturally, because there was a snow storm yesterday. If I could just wear this every day that would be perfect. Or something like this. It’s from the SS 2010 Burberry Prorsum and I WANT it. OK, So I’ll stop pretending like I could ever afford that. I personally can’t wait for the spring. This whole winter thing is pretty, like always, but the snow is already starting to get dirty, black, and compacted. The soft, fluffy stuff, for those of you who don’t know (and I am only pretending to think that people outside of my immediate friend group who have lived in the wintery wonderland forever) only stays around for about 3 hours. After that, people drive and destroy it all. Argyle was slightly different. At least the fields and snow drifts remained relatively untouched. It’s prettier, but also MUCH colder there. I do not envy the -50 weather that’s been recorded up there already this year.

Here are some “friendly tips” for winter in the Midwestern Tundra.

1. Fight the weather with sprfshn. Fur is in, so wear it. It’s warm. OK I’m not going to be friends with PETA anytime soon, but I like eating chicken and turkey anyway.

2. Always turn your wheel INTO the spin. I don’t know if they actually teach this anywhere besides NW Minnesota, but if you’re driving and you start to go into a spin, turn the wheel WITH the spin. It’s the only way you’ll get out. It feels counter intuitive, but it will SAVE your life.

3. Drink lots of STARBYS. Nothing keeps you warm like a Venti quad nonfat caramel macchiato. If you like skinny vanilla latte’s like JOHN, that’s fine too. Just keep yourself hydrated and warm. Also, carry around those travel mugs.

4. If you get frostbite, sit on your hands until you can feel them again. I know it hurts, but you have to do it. Heating pads work too. If it’s -30 degrees outside, try not to stay outside for more than 3 minutes at a time. (this is not a scientific number, i’m just guestimating, naturally.)

5. The most important thing to do in the winter is to exercise. Sure your merona wool sweater will stretch and give, but your t shirt and tanktops in the spring and summer probably won’t. Also, exercising fights seasonal depression…it’s a proven fact, people. Just do Yoga or take a walk or do 30 minutes on the elliptical. The naturalized impulse is to hibernate. FIGHT IT. We aren’t bears…

OK, Martha is on now. Speaking of YOGA, they’re doing a yoga show today. Martha opened the show in a headstand. Everyone’s showing their favorite pose. Here’s mine.